Control - Film Poster Analysis

This film poster caught my eye amongst the others. The bright pink font stands out against black and white background making the film title and the awards it has won stand out immediately. The pink font greatly contrasts with the harsh black and white background suggesting that control is not only the film name but also an underlying theme of the production. Including the awards which the film has won I think is very important to include as they catch audiences interest and gets them curious about the film. As well as the colour I feel that the image of the man is also quite striking, he is smoking a cigarette with a glazed expression, we get the impression that this man is quite rebellious. The character also has a sense of mystery and detachment about him, he is facing away from the camera like he has something to hide, this is very unstereotypical of a drama genre poster as the ones I have previously found depict the main character facing straight forwards. The use of a split black and white background focuses the audiences attention entirely on the character, it also suggests that he may have two sides to him as on one side of the character is pure white and the other harsh black. From the simplicity of the poster you cannot guess much about the diegesis the of film, this can be both a positive and a negative thing, it could make the audience curious about the film in question and influence them to watch it but equally it could put many people off even watching the film.

Film Poster Preparation

As well as a short film we also have to create a poster and a magazine review.

In preparation for the film poster I scoured the internet to find posters for films within the 'drama' genre.

I found that a reoccurring theme in these posters was to have the main characters staring intensely at the audience. I do feel that this is captivating and these posters definitely caught my eye when searching through thousands of film poster images. In the next few posts I will be selecting some individual posters and doing in depth anaylsis.

Moodboard

This is the moodboard which I have created for our production, Flight. As you can see from the images I have specifically chosen, they both represent Sophie's split lifestyle - whether she should follow her desire to become a professional ballet dancer or whether she should proceed to life a hedonist lifestyle which involves drink and drugs. We will try and portray this in our short film through what is shown visually.

Drama Genre Conventions

I have researched the conventions of the drama genre to get a feeling for the genre itself and to understand what typical features are generally in drama films, this is so I can either stick to the conventions or oppose them in my own production.


* Traumatic realistic events occur throughout the film. 
I think that Flight does cover realistic and traumatic issues. We follow the character Sophie and see her struggle to keep the balance of her passion for ballet and her social life. Many people may be able to relate to Sophie and the events which occur throughout the film.
* Narrative often contains elements that may upset and disturb. 
Our narrative will contain the issue of drug use, isolation/emptiness and the characters struggle to find her identity which audiences may find upsetting and be affected by.
* Portray realistic characters. 
Sophie is an average teenager which many teenagers will be able to relate to.
* Main character is often well developed. 
Our character Sophie will be very developed and the audience will get to follow her and see her develop even more throughout our production.

* Character is often in conflict with either themselves, others, or forces of nature. 
Our film will follow Sophie Evergreen and the conflict she has with herself, the audience will get to see her struggle with balancing her 'two lives'.

* Realistic settings. 
We plan on using realistic settings throughout Flight. All the settings are every-day places which many people will often visit.
* Mise-en-scene relates very carefully to main character. 
All the props and locations we are using relates to Sophie and her life. For example, within Sophie's room we plan on having lots of ballet objects relating to her passion for Ballet.
* Costume is often kept simplistic yet personalized. 
Sophie's costume will be simple, she will be wearing simple ballet clothes for the first half (this also is personalized as it represents Sophie's love for ballet) and average teenagers clothes for the second half.
* Lighting tends to go from extremities. 
We have stuck to this convention as our film will suddenly switch to the bright natural bedroom scene to the outside street scene.
* Close-up shots are often used. 
During our film we will have lots of close-ups of Sophie to draw the audience in and get them to connect with her. Close-ups will also help us to show Sophie's emotions.
* Simple editing techniques used only. No special-effects. 
We are going to oppose this convention as throughout our film we plan on having jump cuts and stop motion. We wanted to give our film an edge and make it stand out from the rest, this is our reasoning for using quite complex editing techniques.
* Clear dialogue between characters used throughout. 
We will not have any dialogue within our film. 

Hand-Drawn Storyboard

Above is a hand-drawn version of our storyboard.
Drawn by Leanne.